the collapsed mountains of Las Médulas

We drove into the mountains on our way from León to Santiago to see Las Médulas, the site of an old Roman gold mine. The Romans had a unique way of mining gold; they’d dig tunnels into the mountainside and flood them with water until the mountains collapsed, then they’d dig through the rubble for the gold. Made for some interesting countryside, but it was too rainy and foggy to see much.

pilgrimage by horse

We did see these pilgrims on El Camino, however. It turns out that Las Médulas is on the The Way to Santiago, at least on the Horse Way.

a marker for El Camino de Santiago (The Way)

Note the marker that marks the trail. We’re seeing them everywhere now as we get closer to Santiago. What looks like the rays of the sun is actually the modern symbol for the scallop shell that represents St. James (Santiago). I feel the anticipation building!

Hoces del Rio Duratón Natural Park

We thought we’d spend our last day in Segovia at a nearby Natural Park. I had read that there is a beautiful hike down to the Hermitage of San Frutos. From the surface, the land looks just like the rest of Castilla y León, the state we are in: dry, brown, and flat. But then we got to the ridge overlooking the gorges (hoces) cut out of the limestone by the River Duratón.

Rio Duratón

We could see the Hermitage on a point overlooking the river….

Ermita de San Frutos

…and had a picnic lunch in the abandoned monastery. Frutos and his two brothers, from a wealthy family in the 8th century, sold all their family belongings when their parents died, donated the money to the church, and went to the Rio Duratón to live solitary lives (separate even from each other) in the caves of the limestone cliffs. They were later recognized as saints and are the patron saints of Segovia. The Benedictine monks built a monastery here in the 11th century to commemorate San Frutos; they occupied it until the 19th century.

vulture

But the most amazing thing to me were the birds. The land has been declared a natural park to protect a population of vultures who nest here. They flew so close overhead at one point (maybe 40 feet above us) that we could hear the air rushing through the feathers on their wings and see their heads turning from side to side as they looked for food.